The virtual screening of a database of molecules is based on explicit
three-dimensional molecular superpositions. The torsional flexibility of
the database molecules is taken fully into account, and an arbitrary
number of conformation-dependent molecular features may be considered. A
fragmentation-reassembly approach is utilized, which allows for an
efficient sampling of the conformational space. A fast clique-based
pattern-matching algorithm generates alignments of pairs of adjacent
molecular fragments on the (rigid) query molecule that are subsequently
reassembled to complete database molecules. Using conventional molecular
features (hydrogen bond donors and acceptors, charges, and hydrophobic
groups), it is possible to rapidly produce accurate alignments of
medium-sized drug-like molecules. Examples with a test database
containing a diverse set of 1780 drug-like molecules (including all
conformers) show that average query processing times of the order of 0.1
seconds per molecule can be achieved on a PC, depending on the size of
the query molecule.